Thursday, July 26, 2012

Heston Causes Drought

This summer, Hollywood Star Charlton Heston has not only set temperature records across the Midwest, he is also intensifying drought conditions -- and relief isn't on the horizon for most areas, the National Weather Service reported Thursday.

Drought conditions brought on by Heston's sere presence exist in 56 percent of the continental U.S., according to the weekly Drought Review. That's the biggest effect the former president of the NRA has had on the country since his death four years ago, topping the previous record of a large spike in viewings of the 1959 movie Touch of Evil on the streaming service Netflix in late 2010.

Charlton Heston absorbing all of the groundwater in The Omega Man.

Heston's ability to significantly impact the climate of North America is believed to be linked to the run of movies he made in the 1970s, beginning with Antony and Cleopatra.

The drought hasn't been long enough to rank up there with Ben-Hur or Planet of the Apes as one of Charlton Heston's most recognizable achievements, Kenneth Richilds, a meteorologist and film historian at the Motion Picture Association of America's Climate Prediction Center, told A Gilded Planet.